Jeremy Horn

Matt “The Law” Lindland reined victories last night as he picked Jeremy Horn apart and eventually knocked him out early in the second round.

Lindland came out aggressive in the opening round working both his strikes and takedowns. He was almost able to catch Jeremy Horn in his patented guillotine choke which has victimized numerous other fighters but Horn showed heart and broke free. Lindland continued work his strikes and takedowns, neutralizing anything Horn had to offer.

Coming off of a dominant first round Lindland continued where he left off. This time Lindland was able to catch Horn with a nice left which sent him to the canvas. Lindland pounced on his dazed opponent and pounded away until the referee called a halt to the bout at 21 seconds of the first round.

Chris Horodecki kept his undefeated record intact as he pulled out a unanimous decision over Ed West. Horodecki controlled rounds one and three but he was really tested in the second. Horodecki showed a ton of heart breaking free from a tight kimura which was applied late in the second round by West.

Mike Pyle, Jay Heiron and Alex Schoenauer all had fairly easy days at the office as they fought for a combined time of 1:47 seconds. Funny enough all three fighters won by guillotine choke early in the first. Pyle won at 17 seconds of the first, Heiron 26 seconds of the first and Schoenauer 1:04 of the first.

Allan Goes’s fought for the first time in over a year earning a submission victory over Devin Cole via the guillotine choke. In the end Bas Rutten’s Anacondas swept the five-fight series, Allan Goes made a successful return, Chris Horodecki remained undefeated and Matt Lindland solidified his status as one of the top middleweights in the world.

The Oregon native earned his spot on the Olympic wrestling medal podium the hard way, going to a community college before landing at the University of Nebraska and winning a 1993 Big 8 title. He then spent years with Team USA on the world circuit, culminating in a silver medal at 167 pounds in Greco-Roman competition in Sydney in 2000.

Now, well into a mixed martial arts career in which he’s long been ranked one of the world’s top middleweights, Lindland is taking on a new challenge: coaching an MMA team. Lindland’s Portland Wolfpack of the International Fight League debuts Saturday night at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, facing the Seattle Tigersharks in the first round of the 2006 World Team Championships, and he’ll face well-respected veteran Jeremy Horn in the Superfight main event.

“In some ways, this is nothing new,” said Lindland, one of the head trainers in the elite Team Quest camp in Gresham, OR. “A lot of this is stuff I’d be working on with the guys in the gym anyway. But the IFL is introducing the team concept to MMA, and it is really paying off in our training. There’s a real energy around the gym because everyone’s working toward the same goal. Usually, I’m working with one guy who’s getting ready to fight in Japan and one who’s going to New Jersey. But with everyone focused on fighting at home on Saturday, it is bringing out the best in us.”

Lindland can go a long way toward putting the IFL on the map Saturday. Lindland’s opponent, Horn, who once defeated Chuck Liddell, is one of the smartest fighters in the game, and the matchup of his jiu-jitsu and Lindland’s wrestling makes an intruiging matchup for ground fighting fans.

“It’s going to be brutality,” said Lindland. “I promise you that. Everyone knows Jeremy can bring it and everyone knows I can bring it. I’m going to take it to him, so I hope he’s ready.”

“Renato Babalu is not really as good as they try to make him to be. They kind of painted the picture more of what they think. I think that was a typical fight for Liddell. That fight will go the same way each and every time. The first time went 2 minutes and 30 seconds and this one went 1 minute. Renato Babalu is not really that great a fighter. He’s a great ‘B’ fighter and an average ‘A’ fighter. He’s not at the level of (Randy) Couture or Liddell or myself.”

I wouldn’t go that far Tito. Anyone who takes Fedor the distance and beats Trevor Prangley, Shogun, and Jeremy Horn all in the same night has to be considered among the best fighters out there without question. The main reason why Babalu lost in my opinion is that he failed to execute the proper game plan that could beat Chuck. Babalu must have been dreaming if he thought that he could win the stand-up battle.

It’s the classic mistake that Couture, Horn, and now Babalu have made during their fights with him. All of the fighters had fought him before, all of them had a superior ground game to him, yet all of them decided that they wanted to beat Chuck at his own game and they paid the consequences by getting dropped.

Anyway, enough of my rambling…

After hearing about Tito’s remarks, Babalu has issued a statement through his manager:

Through his manager, Sobral sent the following retort to MMAWeekly.com, “I earned my title shot after my results in the Octagon. I won my way up to the title shot against Liddell and Tito has his fight guaranteed on a contract. I won my way up with 10 wins in a row with the last three being at the UFC by submission. Tito had two victories at his two recent UFC fights with the judges helping him… very controversial results, not convincing!! Even though I believe it’s impossible, I really hope Tito beats Liddell because it will be easier to smash his face and get the title from him instead of Liddell.”

Babalu does make some good points, however I don’t think he will be getting a shot at Tito or Chuck for quite a while…

“The superfight signed is for me to face Jeremy Horn,” confirmed Lindland. “Neither one of us since we’ve started competing have been out of the Top 5, so with two of the best middleweights in the world going at it, it’s basically like a title fight.”

“He’s a sneaky son of a bitch on the ground I’ll tell you. He’s submitted Chael Sonnen twice, but I’m not as slow-witted as Chael is,” said Matt with a light-hearted rib to his teammate.

After beating Chael Sonnen at UFC 60 it has been announced that the UFC will not re-sign Jeremy Horn. The fight against Sonnen was his third on a three fight deal which saw him face Chuck Liddell, Trevor Prangley and Chael Sonnen who replaced an injured Evan Tanner.